I have been using a couple of bungee cords to secure the arms of the manual Carefree awing to the brackets mounted to the trailer. Looking online I was about to purchase a couple of the Camco velcro straps when I came across this: Save Your RV Awning with an RV Awning Travel Lock!

I always thought securing the arms would prevent the awning from unfurling going down the road. But according this gentleman and a couple of other RV websites, it is the cylinder that can rotate unfurling the awning. So… is there anything that I’m missing? The straps are under $10.00 versus $45.00 for the travel lock, but I don’t know if the straps would keep the awning cylinder from rotating and having the pawls break in a big gust of wind. Thanks, Scott

I think if you keep the strap for opening the awning well away from the Open/Close lever and use a Velcro strap, you'll be fine. I suspect that incidents of the awning unfurling are because the opening strap was flapping around in the wind ( from driving ) and that it moved the lever to Open.
And you can buy rolls of Velcro at Lowes, Home Depot etc.

Looking at the last photo, it appears the lever is in the open position (assuming the lever wasn't touched before the photo was taken). I guess this could make the awning rotate slightly allowing the wind to grab the awning.

As someone mentioned, it was locked when we left Osoyoos, with the black awning strap nearby. I always slide it towards the front when retracting, mistake! When we pulled into Montana this was the result.

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JimThe two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why………..Mark Twain

I like my manual awning even though I rarely deploy it. On a recent trip walk-around I noticed the bolt holding the cap to the arm was missing. This unfurling issue sure gets my attention. Murphy's Law applies--It definitely pays to keep watch with both door side mirrors when on the road.

After giving it some thought, I ended up ordering the Model A for the Carefree manual awning. Thinking it will be a safer, more robust solution than just using bungees/velcro wraps around the awning cylinder. Now, I just need to make sure that the pin is locked on our pre-departure checklist. Scott